How is a Financial Coach Different than a Financial Advisor?

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How is a Financial Coach Different than a Financial Advisor?

A question that I often get is, what is a financial coach?

As a financial coach, I help you to reduce your anxiety and stress around money and take the overwhelm away of “where do I even start? I have no idea what I should do.”

Basically, I am a personal trainer, but for your money.

I help you to get your finances organized, to build awareness in your spending habits, to see where your “money leaks” are so you can save more money by reducing your expenses and building a greater gap between your income and your expenses, so you can pay down debt faster, create a nice cushion so you feel more financially prepared and you can put yourself in a position so you have more options in your life. We also work on your money mindset.

As humans, we are very emotional with our money, and helping you with your money management and mindset, is where true financial change lies.

I do not sell products such as insurances or investments. I do not handle information about taxes, only CPA’s can do that, I help you with your everyday cash flow in and out.

I cater to your specific situation, your financial and life goals. I listen to what your goals are with your finances and where you are currently and map you out a plan of how you can get there and I hold you accountable by walking you through the step by step actions.

Instead of just saying, reduce your expenses or “you need a budget,” [because let’s all be honest here, that is NOT actually helping you at all], I actually teach you the HOW. How you can get your finances organized, how you can be saving more money, how you can create more room between your income and your expenses and how you can address overspending and emotional spending. I help you to align your spending with what you want most in your life and set you up for success to achieve those goals.

How is a Financial Coach Different from a Financial Advisor?

A financial advisor helps you with planning for your future and with increasing your wealth by investing or protecting yourself and your family. They help you to choose what investments and tools can help you to reach your long-term goals and provide you with the lifestyle that you want to live in the future. They help you to project how much you will need for your retirement based on the lifestyle that you want to live and what you need to do now, to get there.

Many financial advisors do not have the time or do not get paid, to work with you to improve your everyday finances, to sit down and go through all aspects of your finances to find the “leaks,” to help you build a budget that is very specific to your needs. Working with a financial coach before you go to a financial advisor is actually very beneficial to you, because you will be able to make sure you have the money that you want to invest or to be able to be covered to protect yourself and your family (ex: life insurance, health insurance, disability insurance, etc), you will be able to live with less stress worrying about that additional “expense” that you now have. You will also be able to invest more money into your future because you are managing your everyday money even better.

Working with both a financial coach and a financial advisor, is where you will really get ahead financially because you are working on your money management skills and how you are setting yourself up for success in the future.

How is a Financial Coach Different from a Life Coach?

Life coaches and financial coaches share many similarities, but they also have many differences. You can work with life coaches for all aspects of your life, but they are not working with you directly on your finances. They are not helping to evaluate where you are at now financially and reverse engineer a plan for you to get where you want to go. They don’t help you with budgeting, everyday money management and accountability for your financial habits and actions.

Life coaches help to get more clarity on where you want to go with your life and how to get there. They offer guidance on your journey and can provide accountability to you.

Benefits of Working with a Financial Coach

When people think about improving their finances, they often think about having less debt or more in savings, but there are so many benefits that go much deeper than that.

Less stress & anxiety

Less digestive problems, improved sleep

Take better care of your health

Improved relationships, saving relationships and marriages

Having more freedom & choice. Freedom of your work, how often you work, where you work from and where you live

Having more choice and opportunities in your life

The ability to do what you are most passionate about

Feel organized and on track to achieve your goals

The ability to purchase a home sooner, or put down a bigger deposit on your home

Start a family with less financial stress, start a family sooner

Give back, financially and by volunteering because you have more time

Start a business & become profitable sooner

Scale & expand your business faster, hire help sooner

Travel the world

Support family members

I wanted to include a few pictures that really show how the rest of your life is affected by your financial situation and your thoughts, feelings and beliefs around money. When you are living from a scarcity mindset, your entire body is affected, your energy, your mental health, feelings of anxiety, your eating habits, sleep habits, brain function and so much more.

Struggling Mental Health and Anxiety due to Financially Scarce Mindset

Anxiety & Binge Eating due to Financially Scarce Mindset

If you are at the point where you don’t want to struggle anymore and you want to reduce your overwhelm and anxiety around money, check out my Financial Services that I offer. I work one on one to help individuals and couples manage their specific financial situation and to improve their lives by walking them through HOW to change their financial situation, step by step.

If your finances are a constant state of anxiety and stress for you, focus your energy on improving your finances so you are actually able to reduce this stress instead of living the rest of your life with it. If you are struggling with credit card debt, work with a financial coach who can walk you through the step by step actions of getting your credit cards paid off and keeping them paid off.

If you want some more tips for getting your debt paid off quicker, download my free “4 Steps to Pay Off Your Debt” E-book, this gives you more in detail, the step by step actions to take, to get your debt paid off much quicker than you currently are right now.

Want to get your finances in order so you can have more options, opportunities and choice in your life? Join my free women’s Facebook group Confident Everyday Money to completely change your money situation so it is one that allows you the ability to do that.